Murder in Misery (Spook Squad) (22 page)

“Morne, the paramedics have him. They’re going to take care of
him.” Keegan looked up at the man who was holding her. Detective Cassidy looked just as worried as she was. “They are going to make sure he makes it. He’s going to make it. He’s got to.”

The detective sounded like he was trying to convince himself of that rather than just convince her that Matt would be okay.

She watched as the paramedics loaded him up and into the ambulance before they took off down the road. Everyone who had been present at the crime scene stood watching as the blue and white lights tore down the street. As soon as it disappeared more police cruisers appeared taking the ambulance’s place.

The hospital emergency room was a whir of energy by the time Keegan had arrived. Doctors and Nurses urged sick patients through and parents silently panicking about the child in their arms. Keegan passed a woman struggling to get her boy to settle and set her badge on the counter. Her hands were still caked with Matt’s blood which had grown tacky and thick on her skin. Her shirt and pants were stiff with blood.

“M’am do you need assistance?” The admittance nurse looked up with wide eyes.

Keegan shook her head no. “Detective Matthew Hollis was brought in a little while ago.”

“He has been brought i
n to surgery.” The nurse parted with the information too easily. She stood up and disappeared around the corner before opening the doors. “I’ll bring you to the surgical waiting rooms.”

Nodding her thanks, Keegan followed the nurse silently down the hall. She noted the nearest restroom so she could attempt to wash up before she was being ushered inside a room that housed Detective Cassidy. He sat bent over with his head in his hands.

Taking the seat next to him, Keegan let out a soft breath. Without much thought she did what her mother would have done. She reached out and offered the little bit of comfort she could give. She grasped the detective’s hand in hers and stared across the room. Her voice was raw when she spoke. “He’s going to be okay Cassidy.”

He looked doubtfully over his shoulder at Keegan, “How do you know that? You saw the same thing I did. That monster just tore into him. It was
n’t just his belly, it got his neck too. If he survives the blood loss he might die from being infected. He might not survive that.”

“He’s strong,” Keegan whispered as her hold tightened on Cassidy’s hand. “He is also a stubborn asshole. He isn’t going to die.”

“I know the statistics Morne,” Cassidy choked as he tugged his hand out of Keegan’s grip and hid his face from her. “Most people die from being infected if they’re an adult. He might be one of the toughest guys to make it into homicide but the amount of blood he lost. I don’t know if he’ll be able to make it.”

She watched as his shoulders shook and his breath hitched. She sat stone faced and just as terrified as the man who tormented her. She wasn’t going to give up on Matt though. She couldn’t.

“Matt is strong,” Keegan repeated pulling at Cassidy’s hands to get him to look at her. “Even if he is infected what matters the most is the fact he is not like most other people. He is good, he is a fighter and he never gives up. That is in his favor. Matt is going to make it through this. You have to believe that.”

“Why does it sound like you are so unsure of your self?”
Cassidy looked over at her, his eyes filled with tears. “Why do I feel like you are afraid he isn’t going to make it through no matter how tough you say he is?”

“Because,” Keegan licked her lips, “I’m afraid of what it means if he isn’t strong enough.”

After Keegan and Cassidy dozed off in the waiting room the nurses urged them out of the hospital and to go home so they could clean up and get some proper rest. They wouldn’t be any help to their friend if they were dead on their feet.

Cassidy had an arm wrapped around Keegan as they walked through the parking lot to their cars, “You know he is going to pull through.”

Keegan
starred into Cassidy’s eyes, the deep blue eyes seemed darker than before. She could feel the fear and the desperate slice of hope he was clinging to just as hard as she was. Leaning closer into the warmth of the detective Keegan sniffled, “If he doesn’t I’m going to kick his ass.”

Cassidy shot a confused look at Keegan before his face
cleared and he started laughing. “That’s right. You could kick his ass.”

It only took a moment before they both sobered and leaned in closer
towards each other. Cassidy led Keegan to her car and he stood between the door and the body of the car. “Try to get some rest. Tomorrow isn’t going to be fun. Not for any of us.”

Keegan licked her lips against the wind that scratched at her cheeks. She nodded and squeezed Cassidy’s arm. She knew as well as he did that they would not be able to sleep. The thoughts of how Matt was doing. Going back over what happened twenty times over wondering if they could have done something to stop Bryton from what he did.
She would go over every what-if that popped in her mind. She would continuously think about the fact that maybe if she hadn’t relied on her power to stop Bryton and just done what any normal cop would have done and just shot him, then maybe Matt wouldn’t be in the situation he was in. Things would be different. They would be okay.

“Tomorrow is going to be hard,” Keegan’s voice cracked just thinking about the statements they were going to have to make. The inter
nal investigation that would no doubt start because of the fact that a suspect was killed during a take-down and other officers were killed in the process. There were so many things that went wrong and someone would be held responsible for the mistakes and the deaths that had occurred. “I’m not the only person who is going to need rest.”

Cassidy didn’t say anything after that. He just nodded and closed the car door for her. Keegan watched as Cassidy moved to his own car with his shoulders hunched in and his head ducked towards the ground. As soon as he disappeared into the darkness of his car she pulled out from the hospital parking lot and headed home.

Her house was empty. She could barely stand the silence as she moved through the living room and into the kitchen. She poured her self a tumbler full of vodka and
threw it back without much thought. She poured another glass as she tried to breathe past the burn sliding along her tongue and throat.

Looking down at her shirt Keegan barely made it to the sink before she was throwing up the drink she had just swallowed down. She was still covered in his blood. She needed to get it off.
Tearing her blouse off, buttons trickling against the floor, she ran cold water over the worst of it.

The water turned from
dark pink to translucent but the stains were still there. It wasn’t enough though. No matter how much blood disappeared from the shirt more remained. She dug through the cabinets frantically. She dumped a bottle of peroxide on the fabric and gagged at the smell. The tiny bubbles turned from a foamy white to pink. She doused the shirt under running water and felt her chest lighten at the sight of more blood disappearing.

Staring down at the left over smears of blood Keegan gave up. She threw the offending shirt across the kitchen ignoring the fact that it landed at the foot of the refrigerator.
She pressed a hand to her chest as she toed her boots off leaving them standing in the kitchen as she headed towards the living room.

The throw and pillow she had given Matt were still lying on the couch, bunched up. Keegan pulled her service belt off and dropped everything on the coffee table in front of her before she curled up on the couch. She pulled the blanket over her legs
and up to her chin. She brushed her nose against the pillow and the earthy scent filled her.

Her eyes stung remembering how scared he had looked. She felt her chest ache and her hand pulsed with the memory of the tight hold he had on her before he couldn’t keep fighting.

He was going to make it. Keegan had to keep reminding her self of that. He was strong and young. He was going to push through. Keegan knew that. It just hurt so much to see him hurting so badly and not being able to fix him. All she wanted was for Matt to be at home and asleep in his own bed, not struggling to make it through the night in a hospital room.

Morning had barely brushed across the sky when a heavy knock against the front door tugged Keegan from the restless doze she had fallen into after spending hours trying to scrub Matt’s blood from her blouse. No amount of cold water, peroxide or detergent could get the reminder of what happened out. Her breath caught in her chest when the heavy knock sounded again. She clambered off the couch and yelled, “Just a minute,” before she darted into her room to pull on a tee-shirt before she opened the door with glazed eyes. Two suited detectives stood on her doorstep.

“Detective Morne?”

Keegan eyed the man with a weary eye. He was tall, lithe and he reminded her of a mouse. His partner made her think of a bulldog. In the way his pudge and roll wasn’t anymore of threat to her than his red rimmed eyes.

“What can I help you with?” Keegan rubbed at the corner of her mouth where drool had dried.

“I’m Detective Gros and this is Detective Conway we are with IAB. May we come in?” They both flashed their badges. Keegan barely gave them a cursory glance before she gestured them in.

“I’d offer coffee or something but you guys beat my alarm clock.” Keegan showed them to the living room and immediately their eyes focused on the shirt she had given up with and threw out of the kitchen in a rage. “So what can I help you with?”

“We need to get your version of events on last night’s failed arrest that resulted in the death of three officers and caused injuries to several others.” Detective Gros was blunt and didn’t bother sugar coating what they were after.

“Where would you like me to start?” Keegan asked as she pulled the throw that she used the other night to cover Matt with and wrapped it around her shoulders. She closed her eyes against the earthy scent that she breathed in.

“When everything started to crumble,” Detective Conway prompted. “The suspect, Bryton Anderson had exited the house he had been staying in. What happened then?”

Keegan rubbed a hand over her forehead before she started. Her eyes glued to the floor in front of her.
“When the suspect exited the building he charged for the closest group of officers. That happened to be the alpha team.”

“Who was leading that team?” Detective Gros interrupted her.

“Detective Hollis led that team,” Keegan closed her eyes as she answered. “The officers scattered once one of them were physically harmed. I don’t remember who it was that was first hurt but as soon as I heard the screams everyone else heard them and they scattered for some sort of protection.”

“But you didn’t?” Keegan looked over towards the bulldog, her eyes flashing in anger.

“No, as a member of SIU we are trained not to back down and search for cover like mundane officers. My men and I broke off from the scattering tactical groups and headed towards Mr. Anderson. Melinda shifted into her second form and Gary was next to her the entire time, keeping her calm and waiting for my instructions.”

“But you never gave any instructions did you Detective Morne?” Detective Conway retorted. His voice was unforgiving.

“No,” Keegan confirmed, “I didn’t. Leeroy knew that if he combined his energy with mine there was a possibility that we could stop Mr. Anderson before anyone else got hurt and we would not have to use deadly force against him.”

“How did that work out?” Keegan could feel the satisfaction Gros got from asking her that. He knew exactly how combining their energies worked out. It didn’t.

“It didn’t. I wasn’t fast enough or strong enough to stop and enraged alpha.” Keegan licked her lips and focused in on the man sitting across from her. “Instead when Mr. Anderson charged at me in his shifted form I did the only thing I could in order to remain alive when I realized I didn’t have enough time to not harm the suspect.”

“You killed him.”

“I shot him,” Keegan corrected. “He was still alive when he attacked Detective Hollis. It took several more gun shots for him at actually die. So if it was my bullet that killed him, I don’t know. I was more concerned with keeping Detective Hollis alive.”

“Well,” Both of the men stood up tucking there notebooks and a recorder into their
pockets. “Several officers of homicide were required to be tested for infection because of their exposure to both Mr. Anderson’s blood and detective Hollis’s wounds. But it will please you to know that your actions weren’t for naught. Detective Hollis made it through surgery and appears to be healing up well.”

Keegan felt her throat begin to close and her eyes began to sting with unshed tears. She didn’t bother leading the men to the door, they knew the way just fine. Instead she curled up on the couch and rested her head against the blanket and the arm of the couch.

After three days of forced time off, Keegan returned to the precinct.
The entire homicide and SIU offices were a quiet buzz of activity. Unoccupied desks were covered in get well cards, gag gifts and the three officers who didn’t make it – their desks were left as they were. Eyes followed Keegan as she strode down towards SIU. She ignored the curious eyes and trudged down the stairs. Sarah was sitting so still at her desk Keegan thought the ME had fallen asleep.